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slice

UK/slaɪs/US/slaɪs/
nounB12 meaningsCommon in everyday speech and writing · #2,726 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: slices, sliced, slicing

A slice is a thin, flat piece cut from bread, cake, or cheese. A slice of bread, cut a slice, slice it thinly.

It is cut across rather than off, which is what makes it flat. Figuratively a slice is a share — a slice of the profits — and a slice of life is a piece of ordinary experience shown as it is. In sport, to slice is to hit with side spin. Note that the word comes from a Frankish verb meaning to split.

Mymomisnotreal · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of slice

  1. 1nounsliceA thin flat piece cut from something.B1

    “Could you cut me a thin slice of that chocolate cake?”

    • Said"Just one slice for me; I've already had two."
    • WrittenShe sliced the bread so finely you could read through it.
    • UsedCut a slice from the end of the lemon before you squeeze it.
    • ContrastA slice, not a piece. A piece can be any shape; a slice is thin and flat, and a knife made it. piece →
    • Not thisA chunk torn off a loaf is not a slice. A slice has two straight sides.
    • Exchange"Another slice?""Go on, then. A small one."
    • SimplyTake a slice of cake. Give it to me.

    Patterna slice of + noun (bread, cake, lemon) · a thin / thick slice · cut into slices · sliced bread

  2. 2verbcutTo cut into thin flat pieces.B1

    “She sliced the tomatoes and laid them on top of the bread.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

Remember it

SLIce → the knife SLIdes through

The knife slides through the cake, and one thin slice falls over onto the plate.

hooks ontoslide

Also practised as

  • verbTo cut something into thin flat pieces.

Where it comes from

Old French esclice means a splinter, from a Frankish verb meaning to split. Slit and split are relatives.

  1. Proto-Germanic

    *slitjaną

  2. Frankish

    *slitjan — to split up

  3. Old French

    esclice

  4. Middle English

    sclise

  5. English, today

    slice

Built from

  • esclis · Old French — a piece split off
  • esclicier · Old French — to splinter, split up

From Middle English sclise, sklise, from Old French esclice, esclis (“a piece split off”), deverbal of esclicer, esclicier (“to splinter, split up”), from Frankish slitjan (“to split up”), from Proto-Germanic slitjaną, from Proto-Germanic slītaną (“to split, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European sleyd- (“to rend, injure, crumble”). Akin to Old High German sliz, gisliz (“a tear, rip”), Old High German slīȥan (“to tear”), Old English slītan (“to split up”), modern French éclisse. More at slite, slit.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

slice in the wild

  • Each of these component modules processes one bit field or slice of an operand.

    Bit slicing

  • Radical 91 or radical slice meaning "slice" or "film" is one of the 34 Kangxi radicals composed of 4 strokes.

    Radical 91

  • Some restaurants and pizza stands only sell pizza by the slice, while others sell both slices and whole pizzas.

    Pizza by the slice

  • In casual settings, however, it is typically cut into slices to be eaten while held in the hand.

    Pizza

  • One method of preparation starts by soaking a slice in washing soda for a week, beating it gently from time to time.

    Amadou

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.